Pomona vs Harvey Mudd.

Hy, my name is Malika I am 17 years old, I’m a senior, I’m from Morocco and I’m applying for universities in the US. So during my college search, I found out about the claremont colleges and I loved them all. So one of my biggest favorites are Pomona college and Harvey Mudd. And I have come to a certain time where I should choose which one I should either put as an ED or an ED2 as an admission decision. And I decided to not be quick at choosing them, I need to get as many info about the two colleges first and which one I will fit in the most so that I won’t regret my choice. So here are some information about me and my major, I am a very open minded person I like to have conversations about topics I have never had before so basicly I like to try new things in every single field, I am a musician/ artist (drawer), I llike running and at college I I would love to double major in computer science and music. I am definetly looking for a scholarship so I’ll fill a financial aid form for sure.

It’s not clear to me why Harvey Mudd is in the hunt. You can major in computer science at Pomona and you don’t sound like such a hardcore STEM person that you would have to restrict yourself to HMC’s offerings which most Claremonts will tell you suffer from grade deflation. Both colleges are close enough to each other that you’d be sharing many of the same facilities with ~4,000 other kids, so it’s kind of silly to ruminate over which one is a better “fit”. It’s a matter of which one is academically suited for you (also, which one is easier to get into.)

I am interested In STEM I’m sorry I didn’t mention it, I creat basic simple games and I’m into astronomy and physical theories. I get your point that I should look for the easist one where I can get into, but I would love to know your opinion about which one of the two will match me.

I think both Pomona and Harvey Mudd are okay. They collaborate together. So you can take courses in the other if you are admitted to one college.

ED Harvey Mudd does not really give you an bump in college admission, according to their AO and verified by their common data set.
Good luck. We love HMC when we toured it too!

International need based financial aid is limited at Mudd. If you have high financial need, you have to be a VERY strong applicant to get your need met. Can you tell us about your stats and your financial situation?

Both Pomona and HMC are strong in most sciences and math. The differences would appear in their orientations. Mudd’s tech-focus resembles that of schools such as Caltech, MIT, RPI and, maybe, Rice. Pomona’s wider-ranging home curriculum resembles that of colleges such as Wesleyan, Hamilton, Colgate, Haverford/ Bryn Mawr, Reed and Carleton. Your choice of Pomona versus HMC would be much like making a choice between these two broader groups of schools.

If you want to double major in CS and music then it will probably be much easier to do that from Pomona. HMC doesn’t have a music major so you would have to apply for permission to do an off campus major. As @Silivon says, you can be admitted to one and take courses at another 5C, but you are always subject to rules set by your home campus and the department where you are majoring.

For example, look at this information on the HMC CS department webpage: https://www.cs.hmc.edu/off-campus-students. The introductory CS sequences at Pomona and HMC are set up differently so you can’t mix and match them. You are expected to do the introductory sequence at your home school. (This is true in Economics too. For example, you can’t mix and match the introductory econ sequence at Pomona with the introductory sequence at CMC.)

Harvey Mudd has much heavier core / general-education requirements than Pomona. This may make it easier to do a double major at Pomona.

Pomona requires 6 general education courses. Harvey Mudd requires 12 core curriculum courses (mostly in math, science, and engineering) and 10 additional humanities, social studies, and arts courses.

http://catalog.pomona.edu/content.php?catoid=28&navoid=5634#General_Education_Requirements
https://www.hmc.edu/academics/common-core-curriculum/
https://www.hmc.edu/hsa/curriculum/graduation-requirements/

OP, I think the key question here is how badly do you want to study engineering?

Well for sure my parents aren’t able to afford the whole tuition, they can pay up to 3000$ or less per a year other thatn that they can’t. As u said I need to have a strong application academically, does extra curricular activities counts alot, if so what kind of activities they are looking for?

Have you check the net price calculator at each school?

I did not cause I didn’t know about it, please can u give some ideas !

So do you think that Harvey mudd is better than Pomona, generally ?

Here are the net price calculators:
https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/pomona
https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/hmc

So basicly I am like predicting the cost that my parents may pay for my college studies right

I’m assuming you’re an international since you said you’re from Morocco. Both HMC and Pomona are “need aware” for international students. That means that they only admit a limited number of internationals who need significant financial aid.
https://www.hmc.edu/admission/apply/international-applicants/financial-aid-for-international-students/
https://www.pomona.edu/financial-aid/applying-for-aid/international-aid

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quanzhiguo/2018/07/19/only-five-u-s-colleges-are-truly-need-blind-for-international-students-here-they-are/#f201f984a9a1

@ucbalumnus - are the NPC valid for international students?

Nobody is saying that. Both are top colleges. Both are extremely competitive for admissions.

Harvey Mudd is better if you love a wide variety of STEM and want to work extremely hard at all of them. Pomona might be a better fit for your love of music, art, and conversations (about things other than STEM) while still offering an excellent CS education.

If your parents can only pay $3000 / year, that will be eaten up by travel and health insurance alone. You will need to find a school that will offer you exceptional financial aid meaning your stats and accomplishments for a given school would need to be off the charts. That’s going to be difficult to achieve at schools like Harvey Mudd and Pomona where even domestic applicants with perfect test scores and GPAs get denied. Since you haven’t provided any information about your test scores, GPA, or ECs, nobody can tell you whether you are on track for either of these schools.

Okay gotcha, so what is the perfect sat score for exemple for both colleges?

They do ask for citizenship / residency status (both use the College Board template), so they should take international student status into account. If the OP is an international student, s/he should contact the schools directly to verify that the schools’ NPCs have the correct calculations for international students.